The 5 Strangest Brews from the Great American Beer Festival

Last weekend, hundreds of brewers from around the country poured their best brews at the nation’s largest beer event, the Great American Beer Festival, in Denver. There were nearly 3,000 different beers pouring on the Colorado Convention Center floor for 50,000 festival-goers. Many of those beers were familiar styles, such as IPAs, stouts, and pilsners, with classic aromas and flavors like citrusy hops and biscuity malt.

Others, though, were truly experimental beers, breaking barriers with wacky ingredients and defying definition. Out of thousands of beers, these five beers were the strangest on the festival floor.

Apple Strudel Tripel, Copper Canyon Brewing Co. (Southfield, MI)

There are plenty of fruity strong Belgian ales out there, but this Michigan brewpub carved out a new niche for "dessert beers" with this tripel. Brewer Todd Parker packs tons of flavor into his Belgian Golden Strong Ale by adding apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, ginger, and allspice. The result is a sweet and spicy beer with a subtle bite from its high alcohol content—9% ABV. It's everything you liked about your mom's warm apple strudel in booze form.

Bloody Beer, Short's Brewing Co. (Bellaire, MI)

There must be something in the water in Michigan that encourages its brewers to make off-the-wall beers (and if so, that water ends up in their beer, too). Short's is known for offbeat brews, but Bloody Beer might take the cake. Perfect to pair with brunch, it has an odd red hue from the tomatoes added during the brewing process. On top of that, the team adds dill, peppercorns, celery seed, and horseradish to make a beer that's an homage to the Bloody Mary. One sip and you'll wonder why you ever needed vodka in your Sunday morning routine.

Commercial Suicide, Jester King Craft Brewery (Austin, TX)

Beer geeks typically associate oak aging with big, boozy beers. As such, 3.5%-ABV beers aged in oak are a rare find. This beer starts as a dark mild brewed with Munich and chocolate malts and English hops. While it's fermenting with a funky farmhouse yeast, about a third of each batch is transferred to Kentucky oak barrels to mature. After maturing, that oak-aged portion is blended with the fully-fermented beer. The result is a English-meets-French-meets-American beer that comes out of a lot of seemingly unnecessary work. This beer may not win over the average beer drinker, but Jester King would rather go down in flames trying.

Hot Thoup!, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Milton, DE)

You may already know that Dogfish Head proclaims all of its beers "off-centered," but this one is truly off-the-wall. Brewer Sam Calagione takes his standard imperial pale ale recipe (which clocks in around 8% ABV) and adds—no joke—carrot juice and ginger purée. To top it all off, Dgofish served it warm at the festival, sort of like mulled wine. It's an understatement to call this beer an acquired taste, but the people who liked this beer at the festival really liked it. The rest? They'll stick to the cold brewskis, thank you very much.

Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, Wynkoop Brewing Co. (Denver, CO)

When a beer starts as an April Fool's Joke, you know it's going to be weird. Last April 1, Wynkoop posted a video announcing "a seminal moment" in its history: the first beer brewed with bull testicles. Five months later, they actually brewed it. The eight-barrel batch of the roasty chocolate stout is made with 25 pounds of the Colorado delicacy, which adds a savory, briny character and some extra body to the beer. Every joke in the book has been made about this beer already, but seriously—this beer's got balls.

Last weekend, hundreds of brewers from around the country poured their best brews at the nation's largest beer event, the Great American Beer Festival, in Denver. There were nearly 3,000 different beers pouring on the Colorado Convention Center floor for 50,000 festival-goers. Many of those beers were familiar styles, such as IPAs, stouts, and pilsners, with classic aromas and flavors like citrusy hops and biscuity malt.
Others, though, were truly experimental beers, breaking barriers with wacky ingredients and defying definition. Out of thousands of beers, these five beers were the strangest on the festival floor.
Written by Chris O'Leary (@brew_york)

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